These pictures reveal the crafty tricks used by tobacco smugglers to carry counterfeit cigarettes into Europe undetected.

From scores of cigarette boxes stashed inside a spare tyre, to packets piled high behind a rear bumper, they show the array of hidden compartments created in eastern European smugglers' cars.

It is thought that some garages in Belarus - where the pictures were taken - have started offering a whole new service for clients; installing secret cubbyholes in vehicles anywhere from the dashboard to the bumper for drivers to stash cigarettes.

Hidden compartment: Boxes of counterfeit cigarettes stashed in the bumper of a Renault car to be smuggled into the EU

The smugglers can then drive across borders into the European Union in the hope that their hidden hauls will escape the attention of the authorities.

In the UK, HM Revenue and Customs estimates that tobacco fraud costs the government around £1.8billion every year.